Help - new setup - and missing disks!

[mimwdv]

Hi, I just started with unRaid - loving it so far - using Plus v 4.5.6.  But I've hit my first snag and thought I'd come and ask before I stuff it up!

 

I'm using 3 WD disks so far - 2TB EARS, 2TB EADS and 1.5TB.  I put the first 2TB (disk 1) and 1.5TB (disk 2) into my array, and moved (not copied!) my data over.  I know, I know, it's safer to copy, but I don't have the spare drives, and it wasn't protected before.  If I lose it it'll be sad but not devastating - my really crucial stuff is still elsewhere.  Anyway, that all went well.

 

Then I added the second 2TB drive, and tried to set it to parity.  Not so good, it's slightly smaller than the first 2TB!!!

 

After some searching here, I clearly had to swap the 2TB drives around.  So I added the second 2TB drive to the array (disk3), and copied the entire contents of disk1 to disk3.  Took a while, but Windows eventually confirmed that the data on both disks is identical, same total # of bytes, files, etc.  So far so good.

 

Next step - stop the array, and unassign Disk 1.  OK.

 

Start the array, and got disk1 as "missing" and a "too many wrong and/or missing disks" message.  Yep, disk1 is missing, that's on purpose!  disk2 and disk3 are green, so should be good to go.

 

Now what? What I want is for unRaid to forget about disk1, so I can assign it as parity.  Can someone help me? It feels like it should be simple but I don't want to stuff it up!

 

Thanks, Miriam

[Joe L.]

Hi, I just started with unRaid - loving it so far - using Plus v 4.5.6.  But I've hit my first snag and thought I'd come and ask before I stuff it up!

 

I'm using 3 WD disks so far - 2TB EARS, 2TB EADS and 1.5TB.  I put the first 2TB (disk 1) and 1.5TB (disk 2) into my array, and moved (not copied!) my data over.  I know, I know, it's safer to copy, but I don't have the spare drives, and it wasn't protected before.  If I lose it it'll be sad but not devastating - my really crucial stuff is still elsewhere.  Anyway, that all went well.

 

Then I added the second 2TB drive, and tried to set it to parity.  Not so good, it's slightly smaller than the first 2TB!!!

That indicates you have an HPA added by your Gigabyte's BIOS.  It is a "feature" that will cause you all kinds of problems ongoing.  Highly recommend you get a BIOS upgrade where the feature is disabled by default, or, get a different motherboard.  All 2TB drives by all manufacturers are exactly the same size.  The Host-Protected-Area added by your BIOS is artificially making your parity disk look smaller.

 

After some searching here, I clearly had to swap the 2TB drives around.  So I added the second 2TB drive to the array (disk3), and copied the entire contents of disk1 to disk3.  Took a while, but Windows eventually confirmed that the data on both disks is identical, same total # of bytes, files, etc.  So far so good.

 

Next step - stop the array, and unassign Disk 1.  OK.

 

Start the array, and got disk1 as "missing" and a "too many wrong and/or missing disks" message.  Yep, disk1 is missing, that's on purpose!  disk2 and disk3 are green, so should be good to go.

 

Now what? What I want is for unRaid to forget about disk1, so I can assign it as parity.  Can someone help me? It feels like it should be simple but I don't want to stuff it up!

 

Thanks, Miriam

The only way to have it "forget" a drive is to force a new initial configuration.  You can use the "initconfig" command to set a new initial configuration and have it immediately forget about any previous drives and immediately invalidate parity (if you have a parity drive)

 

Your much bigger issue is the HPA.  Your BIOS added it when you were booting.  Unless you have a BIOS where that feature is DISABLED BY DEFAULT, you run the risk of an HPA being added when the CMOS battery dies in a few years.  This will change the size of the drive and have it kicked out of the array and go invalid.

 

See here in the wiki: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=UnRAID_Topical_Index#HPA

You have a lot of reading to do....

 

Joe L.

[mimwdv]

Hi Joe,  Thanks for your quick reply!

 

I'm not using a Gigabyte for my unRaid (partly because I'd read about HPA), but that drive's been in a Gigabyte box in the past, which I'm guessing is where it came from.

 

Do I need to worry about it going forward given that my unRaid isn't on a Gigabyte?

 

Or can I just run initconfig, put the EARS drive in as parity and know it won't cause me any further problems?

[Joe L.]

Hi Joe,  Thanks for your quick reply!

 

I'm not using a Gigabyte for my unRaid (partly because I'd read about HPA), but that drive's been in a Gigabyte box in the past, which I'm guessing is where it came from.

 

Do I need to worry about it going forward given that my unRaid isn't on a Gigabyte?

No, you do not need to worry, but you can also easily remove the HPA allowing the use of the full size of the disk.

 

Or can I just run initconfig, put the EARS drive in as parity and know it won't cause me any further problems?

You can do that as an alternative.

[mimwdv]

Great, thanks for your help!